This invention relates to a wireless air-volume damper control system where it is desired to regulate air volumes in ducted air handling systems by remote adjustments of each volume control damper.
The wireless air-volume damper control system is particularly useful in testing, adjusting and balancing of ducted exhaust, heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems.
A typical system designed by a professional engineer would contain various components such as fans, coils, filters, inlets, outlets, temperature controls and air volume balancing dampers as design requirements.
One requirement, testing and balancing, requires air volume regulation to each inlet and outlet using a balancing damper, and as each change in a discrete damper affects flow in other parts of system, the balancing process is one of multiple adjustments of many volume control dampers.
Predicting how an installed ducted system is going to perform is not an exact science and the system must be balanced to achieve a desired flow at each inlet and outlet. Balancing a system requires adjustment of each damper, and as each change in a discrete damper affects flow in other parts of the ducted system, the balancing process is one of tuning, often requiring multiple adjustments of many dampers in a multiple damper system.
Adding to the difficulty of balancing flow in a ducted system in a building is the typically concealed location of the dampers within the space above ceiling in each floor of the building. Access is not only difficult, but the process of accessing a damper may result in damage to ceiling tiles or other entry parts provided for adjustment of the dampers.
Where flow volumes at building terminals are certified, special equipment is required to quantify air flow making an air balance typically a two man operation, with one man adjusting a damper and another man measuring the volume of air flowing from the affected terminal. These and other difficulties in adjusting existing damper systems make the described wireless air-volume control system advantageous.
It is a primary object of this invention to simplify the operation of balancing a ducted network having multiple terminals with multiple dampers by remote adjustment of individual dampers in the ducted system.
It is also an object of this invention to provide for remote adjustment by use of a portable wireless controller.
It is another object of this invention to freeze a balanced system to prevent unauthorized changes to the system.
It is another object of this invention to retain damper settings when power is removed from the system.